Dispositional Flow and Related Psychological Measures Associated with Heart Rate Diurnal Rhythm

This study examined whether six dispositional psychological measures; Frequency of Flow Expe-rience, Resilience, Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy, Will for Meaningful Life, and Trait-Anxiety are associated with heart rate diurnal rhythm parameters. The associations of four physiological parameters-24-hour and 12-hour periodic component amplitudes, diurnal heart rate range amplitude, and autonomic switching rate-with the six dispositional psychological measures were analyzed. The physiological parameters were extracted using two different methods from heart rate data continuously recorded at one-minute intervals by a wrist device. Conventional cosinor and spline-based methods were used. The study was conducted on 20 healthy individuals aged 25-57 years. Single regression analysis showed a significant correlation of Frequency of Flow Experience, Resilience, and Will for Meaningful Life with heart rate rhythm parameters (p < 0.05), and a trend of significant correlation of Self-Esteem with heart rate rhythm parameters (p < 0.1). On the other hand, Self-Efficacy consistently showed a positive correlation, while the only negative psychological measure; Trait-Anxiety, showed a negative correlation with heart rate rhythm parameters, although statistical significance was not reached (p > 0.1). Principal component analysis extracted two orthogonal components with which multiple principal com-ponent regression yielded better R-2 (coefficient of determination) values than single regression for Frequency of Flow Experience (R-2 = 0.451, p < 0.05), Resilience (R-2 = 0.587, p < 0.05), Self-Esteem (R-2 = 0.494, p < 0.05), Will for Meaningful Life (R-2 = 0.364, p < 0.05), Self-Efficacy (R-2 = 0.322, p < 0.1), and Trait-Anxiety (R-2 = 0.241, p > 0.1). Based on these results, positive dispositional psychological measures were associated with physiological parameters representing long-term characteristics of autonomic nervous activity. The research outcome may be applied to develop a ubiquitous healthcare monitoring system that integrates both physiological bio-signals and psychological measures.